Tuesday, February 16, 1999
UCLA must
settle for mixed results against Bay Area teams
W. BASKETBALL Bruins lose in final seconds to the Cardinal,
but later handily defeat Bears
By Jeff Kmiotek
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA women’s basketball team lost its first Pac-10 home game
of the season to Stanford Friday, in a down to the wire
thriller.
With the score tied at 84-84, Stanford got possession with only
26 seconds left.
The Cardinal worked the ball around, and with 3.8 seconds to go,
freshman Lindsey Yamasaki revved up and fired the game-winner
cleanly through the net.
"It came to me. I was open. I knew I had to shoot it. Luckily, I
got all the bad ones out early," said Yamasaki, who had made just
one of her previous nine 3-point attempts in the game.
UCLA (19-6, 11-2 in Pac-10) had trailed throughout the game, and
could not stop the Cardinal in the paint or Regan Freuen anywhere
on the court. Freuen netted 34 big points for Stanford, and 6-foot,
6-inch Carolyn Moos couldn’t be tamed either, scoring 17 points
with 11 rebounds.
"They came out with fire in their eyes," said UCLA coach Kathy
Olivier. "They took it to us in the first half. We gave them too
many easy looks, including the last one."
Stanford (14-9, 10-2) lit up the nets in the first half to take
a 51-39 lead into their locker room. The Bruins must have been
inspired in their locker room, as they came out and cut the lead to
one in less than six minutes of play. Stanford then went on a 23-11
run, before UCLA put its rally caps back on to get within a point
on Melanie Pearson’s clutch three-pointer with 1:13 left.
UCLA’s LaCresha Flannigan, who led the Bruins with 22 points,
made one of two free throws to knot the score with 26 ticks to go,
setting up Yamasaki’s game-winner.
"It shouldn’t have come down to that play, but it did. We just
didn’t match up as well as we would’ve like too," said Olivier.
* * *
The Bruins’ Valentine’s weekend did end on a much better note
than it began, as UCLA took care of the California Bears (8-13,
2-10 Pac-10) on Sunday, 76-61.
This time, UCLA got off to the hot start, rolling to an early
31-13 lead. However, the Bruins went on a field goal drought for
seven minutes, allowing the Bears to cut the lead to 34-28 at
halftime.
"I stressed in the locker that we needed to come out with
energy," said Olivier. "That 10 minute lull we had in the first
half – we can’t do that and expect to win games."
The Bruins took control of the second half, building their lead
up to 19 at one point. Maylana Martin led the Bruins’ balanced
scoring attack with 13 points and seven rebounds. Four other Bruins
scored in double digits.
The Bruins are now tied with the Oregon Ducks at 10-2 atop the
Pac-10 conference standings.
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